Daniel H. Friedan

Physicist Class of 1987
location icon Location
Chicago, Illinois
age iconAge
39 at time of award
area of focus iconArea of Focus

About Daniel's Work

Daniel Friedan is a particle physicist whose work straddles the borderline between field theory and mathematics and demonstrates a new approach to problems in theoretical physics.

Friedan studied literature as an undergraduate and philosophy as a graduate student, turning to physics only in his late twenties.  He has since addressed a most challenging problem in physics—the unification of gravitation with strong, weak, and electromagnetic interactions.  His work is essential for understanding string theory, an approach to the unified theory of all interactions.  His contributions to the study of two-dimensional systems have led to important discoveries in statistical mechanics, and his research toward understanding the basic properties of one-dimensional, condensed-matter systems at low energies and large distances will have practical applications in quantum computing.

Biography

Friedan held a teaching appointment at the Enrico Fermi Institute at the University of Chicago (1981-1989) and now heads the theoretical, high-energy physics, research group as a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Rutgers University.

Friedan received an A.B. (1969) from Princeton University and a Ph.D. (1980) from the University of California, Berkeley.

Last updated January 1, 2005.

Published on July 1, 1987

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